I really have to hand it to Sony Mobile for being this prolific in releasing smartphones this year. I think the Sony takeover of that former handset partnership is truly doing the business well.

I remember, just two years back, Sony Ericsson would have only one or two Android smartphones per price category. TP-Favorite Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, for instance, was then alone in the top tier. Now, Sony Mobile has at least three handsets per echelon -- to the delight of its fans, I'm sure.

Shown above, Sony Xperia T - announced yesterday at IFA 2012 in Berlin - is already the fourth high-end smartphone from the Japanese company this 2012 -- following Sony Xperia S, Sony Xperia ion, and Sony Acro S, discounting all variants of the said models. And there's no telling if it will be the last for this quarter.

Just from looking at the phone's exterior, one can get a feel that Sony put a lot into making it a top contender in its category. Measuring only 9.4 millimeters at its thickest point, Sony Xperia T features a very subdued yet elegant design that users who don't like too many accents or frills on their gadgets will surely find attractive. The face of the device flaunts the 4.55-inch 720p high-resolution display beneath the shatter-resistant-glass capacitive touchscreen. And at the back, we'll see a very minimalist look with just the camera, its LED flash, the Sony Mobile logo, and speaker hole arranged in a line, barely taking up space.

Interestingly, Sony Xperia T has this bump for the camera at the back that kind of looks like what we'll find on some recent HTC flagship phones.

But if there's anything that can match the phone's gorgeous design and stellar construction, it would have to be its internal specifications and multimedia features. Sony Xperia T runs Android Ice Cream Sandwich right out of the box with its Dual Core 1.5 GHz Krait processor, which is said to be almost as good as some quad core CPUs for smartphones currently available. Inside the case, the CPU is joined by 1GB of RAM for effective multi-tasking and 16GB of internal storage that users can expand via the phone's microSD card slot. To share content captured using the phone's powerful 13 MegaPixel autofocus camera with LED flash and 1080p video recorder, which Sony Mobile claims to be the highlight of this handset, you can use WiFi, Bluetooth or HSPA+ connectivity; There's even a version of the handset that supports LTE.

Aside from top-notch video and photo capture capabilities, the key strengths of any Sony smartphone these days would have to be the svelte TimeScape user interface serving as skin for the Android operating system, PlayStation mobile gaming suite, the solid set of music and video playback features, and the xLoud audio enhancement.

So will this be released in the Philippines? And if so, how much will the smartphone cost? Sony Xperia T is a global flagship model so yes, there's a chance for it to be released in our country. Then again, I heard that the company also has another similar phone that's made specifically for the Asian market -- so I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Anyway, in case Sony indeed decides to bring Sony Xperia T here, I believe it be will already be sometime during the Yuletide Season. As for the price, our TP Guesstimate is around Php 27,000 to Php 30,000; Here's to hoping the actual SRP will be more affordable than that.